Column: Cleveland, Las Vegas share tales of NFL woe

Let’s play the blind resume game.

This NFL team has a rich past of winning, including multiple championships, and a long list of Hall of Fame players. It has also been an afterthought for most of the last two decades, offering just one playoff berth since 2002.

You are correct if answering the Cleveland Browns.

You would also be correct to say the Raiders, who are set to host next year’s draft after the event is held in Cleveland later this week.

That’s not the only thing the franchises have in common. Recent similarities abound between the Cleveland and Las Vegas football teams.

But as bad as things have been for both since, well, Lance Armstrong was disqualified from the Tour de France for doping, the Browns appear to have turned a corner of sorts.

Not sure you can say that about the Raiders.

“It happens at some point for most every NFL club, and it would be foolish to say it’s not going to or can’t for the Raiders,” said national NFL reporter Jim Trotter. “We just haven’t seen them take that next step.

“Personally, I don’t think they’re any better off now than when (head coach) Jon Gruden got there. In fact, I might make the argument they’re even worse.”

Lesser talent now?

It’s an oft-heard observation, that the team’s talent level after three years under Gruden isn’t as high as what he inherited. There have been more draft and free-agency misses than hits. The Raiders are 19-29 since Gruden returned for a second stint as head coach.

But one of the team’s eight wins last year came in Cleveland, where the Raiders won 16-6 and at least on that particular Sunday played like a playoff-caliber team.

“It was one of the few times (Browns coach) Kevin Stefanski was out-coached all season,” said Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Terry Pluto. “Gruden came in and beat the Browns at their own game on the lakefront in awful weather. I think our view at that point was that the Raiders were a team on the way up.”

That team went on to lose five of its last seven games.

The Browns, however, finished the regular season 11-5, beat the Steelers in a wild-card round before falling to the Chiefs.

Success in the NFL is defined only one way. You qualify for the playoffs. Nothing else matters. Nobody cares about incremental improvement if you’re always sitting home in January. The Raiders have gone from four wins to seven to eight under Gruden.

Cleveland was 0-16 four years ago. The year before that, it was 1-15. Now, it’s a playoff team with one of the league’s best rosters. Things can turn quickly, is right.

There are similarities between the Raiders and Browns over time. But there are diffences as well.

Cleveland’s championship history goes way back. It won eight titles between 1944-64, four each in the All-America Football Conference and the NFL.

But the Browns have never reached a Super Bowl.

Not so for the Raiders, who have claimed the Lombardi Trophy three times and lost in the final game two others. In this sense, Las Vegas owns an edge over Cleveland larger than the stadium in which Baker Mayfield lives for those television commercials.

There are other differences. The Raiders have been somewhat stable at quarterback over the years. Fans of the Browns actually made T-shirts listing 23 names that have played the position since 1999. Oh, for the days of Derek Anderson and Colt McCoy and Johnny Manziel and DeShone Kizer.

But the Raiders also had the Tuck Rule Game and the Browns had The Fumble and The Drive. Each spent much of the 1980s earning postseason berths.

For embarrassments, the Browns offer visions of fans with brown-paper bags over heads. The Raiders had the Oakland Coliseum. Pretty much a draw.

Passionate fan bases

There is also this: Both teams are defined by impassioned fan bases that know all about their beloved teams abruptly moving and breaking hearts along the path of relocation.

“I think that’s one thing that connects the franchises,” said Cleveland-based sportswriter Bud Shaw. “For a long time, the Browns were given a benefit of the doubt by fans because there had been a period when they were really good. But then it gets to 15 years and then 20 and 25 and all there is left to talk about is tradition and history.

“It ultimately falls into the category of wishful thinking for fans. The Raiders are a lot like that. They still have some level of reputation across the league. They still have a brand. People want to believe the team can be a factor again. It’s just that there has been such little proof.”

The Browns for years were defined by total dysfunction, constantly changing head coaches and general managers and front office personnel. That hasn’t been the Raiders.

But while Cleveland can’t boast about any consistent success of late — it has just three winning seasons since an expansion rebirth in 1999 — the allure of what the Browns are building is palpable throughout the league. That’s also not the Raiders right now.

“No one,” said Trotter, “is ever really that far away in the NFL.”

The Raiders continue to hope so, because for them, turning that corner has proven to be incredibly difficult.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.